1. (Field of the Invention)
This invention relates to a misfire-detecting system for internal combustion engines, and more particularly to a misfire-detecting system which is capable of discriminating between a misfire attributable to the fuel supply system and one attributable to the ignition system.
2. (Prior Art)
In an internal combustion engine in general, high voltage (sparking voltage) generated by the ignition coil of the engine is sequentially distributed to the spark plugs of the cylinders of the engine via a distributor, to ignite a mixture supplied to the combustion chambers. If normal ignition does not take place at one or more of the spark plugs, i.e. a misfire occurs, it will result in various inconveniences such as degraded driveability and increased fuel consumption. Furthermore, it can also result in so-called after-burning of unburnt fuel gas in the exhaust system of the engine, causing an increase in the temperature of a catalyst of an exhaust gas-purifying device arranged in the exhaust system. Therefore, it is essential to prevent occurrence of a misfire. Misfires are largely classified into ones attributable to the fuel supply system and ones attributable to the ignition system. Misfires attributable to the fuel supply system are caused by the supply of a lean mixture or a rich mixture to the engine, while misfires attributable to the ignition system are caused by failure to spark (so-called mis-sparking), i.e. normal spark discharge does not take place at the spark plug, due to smoking or wetting of the spark plug with fuel, particularly adhesion of carbon in the fuel to the spark plug, which causes current leakage between the electrodes of the spark plug, or an abnormality in the ignition circuit.
A conventional misfire-detecting system is already known from Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 51-22568, which utilizes the fact that the frequency of damping oscillation voltage generated in a primary circuit of an ignition device whenever the contacts of the distributor are opened is higher when a spark ignition occurs than when failure to spark occurs.
However, the conventionaI misfire-detecting system is only based upon the frequency of damping oscillation voltage generated in the ignition circuit, i.e. based upon whether or not a discharge occurs between the electrodes of the spark plug. Therefore, the conventional system is unable to discriminate whether a misfire detected is attributable to a cause in the fuel supply system such that although a discharge has actually occurred, the mixture is not fired due to its lean or rich state, or to a cause in the ignition system, thus failing to take a satisfactory and prompt fail-safe action.